Investigative journalist said she was born with QUESTION AUTHORITY on her forehead.

by Michael McBane, National Coordinator, Canadian Health Coalition

Investigative reporter and columnist Julie Mason was a friend of Medicare and supporter of the Canadian Health Coalition.

For the past couple of years we had the pleasure of getting to know and work with Julie.

Julie helped us celebrate the 30th anniversary of the CHC last November and delivered the after dinner speech.

It was a passionate, political and principled address - reflecting the person that Julie was.

I remember sitting at the same table that night with Julie and her husband Don and sharing memories of visiting Tommy Douglas in the early 1980's at the NDP office on Metcalf Street.

Like Tommy, Julie spoke from the heart about Medicare and didn't mince words:

"As many of you know, I'm a cancer patient - I live with stage 4 metastatic ovarian cancer. Medicare keeps me alive..."

Julie used her investigative journalism skills to expose the flaws in the Shona Holmes story, the Ontario woman who claimed in a US TV ad campaign that delay's in Canada's health care system forced her to go to the U.S.

As Julie put it: "When Shona's story was blasting all over the media, no one from the federal or provincial government stepped up to defend Medicare.

It's what Tommy Douglas once referred to as 'the subtle sabotage'. There's no shortage of Medicare sabotage..."